What is Culture?
And what does it have to do with language?
Stop and think…
What is something you identify with?
Personally, I find a strong identity in being a volunteer. I have been volunteering consistently since I was young, and the activities I have done and people I have been surrounded by in volunteering have helped to shape part of who I am. I share similar values and desires with others who I volunteer with.
How have parts of your identity shaped you? Why is that?
If this exercise resonated with you, you might have a bit of a head-start on this section.
There isn’t just one definition of culture… because it is not an easy task to “define culture”.
Many have attempted, and each rendition holds its own value. Your personal view of culture may differ from the definition written here, and that is okay. One of the most beautiful things about culture is that it impacts and is viewed by everyone differently.
With that in mind, when discussing culture throughout this section, please keep this description in mind: “Culture is a word that suggests social patterns of shared meaning. In essence, it is a collective understanding of the way the world works, shared by members of a group and passed down from one generation to the next,” (Biswas-Diener & Thin, 2024)[1].
But surely it’s impossible to cover an entire group’s understanding of the world in one umbrella, right? This is where sub-cultures come in.
Culture is not something that people are born with, but rather born into and develop a sense of over time. Its practices and the people within it cannot be confined to a box. In this way, because culture is so dynamic, sub-cultures may manifest. “In contrast to the dominant culture of a society […] are the various subcultures, conceived as groups that are part of the dominant culture but that differ from it in important ways” (Weil, 2018).
Sub-cultures enable members to find communities of people with similar thinking patterns, values and desires, which may deviate from those of their broader culture, and share in camaraderie.
But How Does this Apply?
Good question.
Now that we have differentiated “culture” and “sub-culture”, let us reflect on the beginning exercise once more. Could the part of your identity that you selected also have a culture, or sub-culture?
To me, the culture of volunteering involves selflessness, and commitment to learning and growing. Because much of my volunteering consists of working with exchange students, my identity is in a sub-culture that highlights characteristics of that specific area of my volunteer work.
I’ve found that many volunteers who work with international students place a lot of value on being a responsible global citizen and strengthening international understanding. When I am volunteering, these values are always at the forefront of my mind.
There are other aspects of this type of volunteering that I might identify less with, such as the negative conception that volunteers who work with exchange students like to brag about how well-traveled and knowledgeable they are. Though many of the volunteers that I work with love to talk about exchange, they are quite humble about their experience. They are aware that they still have so much to learn and will be learners for the rest of their lives. Even if we don’t identify with this negative stereotype, it still can affect how we are perceived by many people.
While these characteristics aren’t exclusive to volunteers who work with exchange students, the defining features of this sub-culture likely differ from that of volunteers at animal shelters, for example, even though we may share a lot of the same overarching values of volunteer culture. For example, they may value animal welfare more in their volunteer work than I do. This doesn’t mean that I don’t value animal welfare, but simply that it’s not inherently part of the values I project because of volunteering with exchange students.
Languaculture: Living, Shifting Language
As culture is dynamic and ever-changing, so too is language. Adaptations in language over time are often attributed to changes in cultural attitudes and ideals. The term ‘languaculture’, originally coined by Michael Agar in 1994, can be used to describe this “essential tie between language and culture,” (Norris & Tsedendamba, 2014). Languaculture represents the idea that a language is made up not only of its grammatical and vocabulary elements, but also past knowledge, inventions, cultural information, and behaviors that contribute to language change over time. Culture borrows from language, and language from culture; they are deeply intertwined, making it challenging, if not impossible, to separate them entirely.
Over time, culture shifts because of the people who belong to it, as they are also the people who form it. New language forms as a result of the needs of its cultures’ speakers. Something like slang or inside jokes are just one way in which the speakers of a language create something new that evolves that culture.
Please enjoy this video where Amirpooya Dardashti discusses some of the ways that culture and language play into one another that exemplify their “essential tie”. Using a few of his own experiences as examples, he shows us how culture can impact even our everyday life:
In his Ted Talk, Dardashti shares how he noticed cultural differences more frequently when he began teaching English in Iran. He saw many large differences (both verbal and nonverbal) in how people communicated language. He also noted that, in some cases, certain cultural notions aren’t even existent in another environment, and that it can be difficult for people who aren’t familiar with the context to pick up on cultural cues.
Some differences in how communication takes place can be more surface level. For example, when it comes to greeting others, bowing is common in much of East Asia, but shaking hands is more common in many western countries, or another way of greeting someone might be saying “Namaste,” and pressing one’s hands together such as what is common in Hindu culture.
Other notions, as also noted by Dardashti, are more complex and might not exist in another language/culture, which can make it challenging for those who aren’t familiar with the context. He discusses the Persian culture of “Tarof” which shows the Persian concept of hospitality. He gave the example of going to a meal with American friends and splitting the bill by person, but always fighting with Persian friends about who would get to pay for the entire meal to show appreciation for everyone. However, these cultural differences aren’t impossible to overcome by any means.
- Biswas-Diener, R. & Thin, N. (2024). Culture. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Dinner (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers. https://noba.to/y9xcptqw ↵
“A word that suggests social patterns of shared meaning. In essence, it is a collective understanding of the way the world works, shared by members of a group and passed down from one generation to the next,” (Biswas-Diener & Thin, 2024).
“Groups that are part of the dominant culture but that differ from it in important ways,” (Weil, 2018).
The idea that a language is made up not only of its grammatical and vocabulary elements, but also past knowledge, inventions, cultural information, and behaviors that contribute to language change over time.